Greenhouse Vegetable Pollination
 (Read 500+ times)
By Clair Schwan
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Pollination of vegetable plants can be a problem for indoor gardeners because your plants are indoors and not outside where natural pollination can take place. It’s a common concern for beginners with a greenhouse. Let’s take a general look at what pollination is and how we might handle such a task with our indoor gardening.
What is it?
Pollination is part of the reproductive cycle of plants. It involves transferring pollen from male parts of flowers to female parts of flowers to fertilize the plant. Fertilization is essential so the plant can produce seed and bear fruit.
Some plants are self-fertile so they don’t need pollen from another plant. Other plants require cross-pollination where pollen from another similar plant is used to fertilize the flower.
How does it get done?
There are four basic ways that pollination takes place: animal contact; wind; self-pollination, and by human hand. Here are examples of each type of pollinator at work.
The overwhelming majority of plant pollination is performed by animals as they go about searching for food. The best pollinators out there are bees. While these animals search for sweet nectar, they help pollinate your vegetable garden.
Wind is a pollinator for roughly 20% of plant life. Corn is probably the best example to illustrate how wind pollination works. Pollen is blown by the wind from the tassels on top of the corn plant to the corn silk that hangs out of the end of each ear of corn. That’s why corn is best planted in multiple adjacent rows instead of single rows.
Many types of plants are self-pollinating. Some plants pollinate themselves by having the male portion of the blossom grow into contact with the female portion. This can happen even when the blossom is closed.
When growing plants indoors, the chance of pollination by animals and wind is reduced. That’s where pollination by hand comes into play. Sometimes it requires a small paint brush, and sometimes we just need to shake the plant a bit or create air circulation to promote pollination.
Pollinating indoors
There are several methods for making certain your indoor vegetables are well pollinated. The easiest approach to indoor pollination is to provide an opening for insects to enter.
Bees will naturally find their way into your greenhouse or other indoor growing area if you give them an opportunity. An open vent or an open door is all they’ll need if they’re plentiful outdoors.
Tomatoes are mostly self-fertile, yet some have blossoms that don’t open, so they can’t be pollinated by bees or other insects, and indoors the wind can’t get to them. To ensure adequate pollination, just shake the plant lightly every few days after blossoms appear.
Squash plants have both male and female flowers. As soon as the blossoms open, use a small water color paint brush and act as the pollinator in the absence of bees. Gently swirl it inside of a male flower to pick up pollen, and then brush it lightly inside the center of the female blossoms (the ones with the tiny fruit behind them).
So, there you have it, the basics of pollination for fruit set and seed development. Even indoors nature can accomplish this task, but sometimes it needs a little help. To be on the safe side, I always help along my vegetable plants until I see that an abundance of bees have found their way into the greenhouse to pollinate the plants.
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Author Bio Box: Clair Schwan
 Clair Schwan is an experienced vegetable gardener that grows and harvests a wide range of vegetables all year long in unheated greenhouses of his own design and construction. See his advice and counsel on a range of vegetable gardening and greenhouse gardening topics at http://www.vegetable-gardening-and-greenhouses.com
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